Tag: Gold Standard of Connectivity

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The Week, That Was – July 2019 Week 4

In five minutes or less, keep track of the most important news of the week, curated just for you. We present to you hand – picked news on latest industry perspectives and some general updates. Read on!!

eRevMax makes inroads in Bahrain with Hani Group

Hani Group, an upscale hotel chain in Bahrain has selected eRevMax to improve online sales with efficient rate and availability management. All three properties of the group are using RateTiger hotel channel manager and price intelligence tool, Shopper, for online connectivity and revenue management.

https://bit.ly/2M3ybXk

Checklist for your next hotel channel manager

A hotel channel manager is a must have for hoteliers today. If you are planning to add or change your existing channel manager, here is a quick checklist of things you need for assessment.

https://erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2019/07/checklist-for-your-next-hotel-channel-manager/

TripAdvisor: How reviews impact bookings

TripAdvisor has unveiled the results of new research looking into how significantly reviews influence booking decisions. The study reveals that the wisdom of the crowd remains the reason respondents visit TripAdvisor, with participating users citing the descriptive and helpful reviews (70%), the accuracy of the content (62%) and the broad range of travel content (62%) as their primary reasons for visiting the site.

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/tripadvisor-how-reviews-impact-bookings/

What dynamic pricing leaders can teach the travel industry

Dynamic pricing, the process of using data to more accurately segment consumers and automatically offer them differentiated prices based on various factors, is being deployed from both within and outside the travel industry. Early adopters include many players in the airline industry, Airbnb and Amazon. So, with so many waking up to dynamic pricing, what are some of these early adopters doing and what are the main lessons?

https://www.eyefortravel.com/what-dynamic-pricing-leaders-can-teach-travel-industry

How to drive direct bookings through rooms and special offers copy

Learn how to choose the right words to simplify decision-making, convey the information that your guests really need, and utilize a handful of conversion-focused tactics.

https://bit.ly/2YmNcWt

A modern approach to hotel sales prospecting

Outdated techniques like cold-calling have moved aside to make way for more effective and comprehensive prospecting strategies. When it comes to training hotel sales managers to prospect, many sales leaders are looking backward and not recognizing how to integrate prospecting into the real world of hotel sales in 2020.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/297167/A-holistic-approach-to-hotel-prospecting

Asia’s big four fuel worldwide travel spend

Overnight visitors from mainland China, Republic of Korea, Japan and Taiwan now account for 18.5% of global travel expenditure in the world’s top 200 cities, up from just 11% a decade ago.

https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2019/07/asias-big-four-fuel-travel-spend/

Airbnb introduces new search tools for business travelers

As more companies turn to Airbnb for Work to arrange work trips, the vacation rentals, homes and experiences business is making things easier for business travelers.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/22/airbnb-introduces-new-search-tools-for-business-travelers/

Booking.com relaxes keyword bidding clause with hotels

Booking.com has altered its contract with hotel partners so that owners and chains now have the ability to bid freely on brand terms in Google.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Booking-brand-bidding-rule-change

Connect with us for your connectivity needs to make the most of online revenue-https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

Thanks and have a good day!

 

 

 

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Deep dive into APAC online travel agencies – Part 2

With increasing disposable income and expanding tourism, Asia Pacific has become the fastest-growing regional travel market. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, five of the world’s ten fastest growing tourism cities are in Asia, making it the hot spot for the travel marketers. Propelled by high penetration of mobile, the region has been witnessing double digit growth in online booking, making it a priority region for global OTAs. However, the market is still dominated by local and regional players, even as global OTAs make strategic investments to make inroads.

In our series on Online Travel Channels in APAC, we have looked into major players shaping the digital travel space. In the first article of the series, we have discussed the giants in the region – Agoda, Ctrip and Make My Trip and their secret sauce to success. In this second part, we will be focussing on local players who are dominating the online travel space in their respective regions.

Fliggy

Fliggy (formerly known as AliTrip) – the travel booking site from Alibaba, is an important player in the China focusing on the upmarket segment – particularly the travel aspiring millennials and international travellers. Of the 10 million daily active users on Fliggy, 80 percent are millennials with college degree living on tier-1 and tier-2 cities – giving the platform a unique exposure and reach. Alibaba has also positioned it as a “premium” travel booking site focusing on outbound travel. The site is designed as youthful, refined, geared toward long-haul, leisure, experiential, as well as luxury trips, rather than the usual to short-term or domestic business travel. From its partnership with Marriot group to getting Booking.com to launch a flagship store on its platform, Fliggy has been making a series of strategic partnerships to create a global brand. Leveraging Alibaba’s ecosystem, which is used by 699 million mobile monthly active users, the platform is positioning itself as a travel marketplace covering the 360 degree of travel to provide consumers with better travel products and service experience. This means a traveller with high purchasing power can plan and book their travel on Fliggy, buy additional items necessary for travel from Alibaba owned e-commerce site Taobao while using Alipay for transactions, ensuring a seamless user experience throughout.

Rakuten Travel

Japan’s online leisure/unmanaged business travel market is the second largest in Asia Pacific region. Founded in 2002, Rakuten Travel is one of Japan’s largest online hotel reservation website with over 3.7 million room nights booked per month. The channel receives 5.34 million unique visitors every month. The firm has access to more than 20,000 domestic and 15,000 international hotels and has a presence in South Korea and China. Rakuten Travel, which is the most popular OTA in Japan, is owned by Rakuten Group, which provides more than 70 e-commerce services beyond travel. The group, often compared with Amazon connects services within its ecosystem enabling users to access all services within the system by using a single login ID, and the same loyalty program for a seamless experience. The company has invested heavily into artificial intelligence and big data for understanding changing consumer behavior and effective personalization.

Traveloka

Traveloka, one of late entrants in the market and founded by three friends in Indonesia, is one of the biggest success stories in the online travel space in South Asia.  The channel which offers flights, hotels, trains, tours & activities, transfers and packages is present in Southeast Asia’s six primary markets — Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. With the introduction of PayLater, an online credit system without the need for a credit card, Traveloka is poised to make further inroads into the region where relatively low penetration of credit / debit card has remained a hindrance to online payment. The channel is also actively pushing into the lifestyle category and has recently rolled out a discovery platform featuring restaurant and wellness activities. The Traveloka mobile app has been downloaded more than 30 million times, making it the most popular travel booking app in the region. With Expedia’s investment into the channel making it the first billion-dollar start-up in Indonesia, the company has been adding more products and services including bundles to mobile applications to make it a one-stop-shop for customers to book and redeem travel themselves.

As hoteliers, are you ready to tap into the Asia Pacific market? Are you managing these channels well and keeping them automatically updated with rates and availability on a regular basis?

Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

 

 

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Top tech trends for driving your hotel revenue

With the constant evolution of technology and new trends coming and going, its important for hotels to keep a track of what is happening around them. Knowing the impact of new technology and how it can affect revenue is key to running any business successfully today. The same applies to the travel and hospitality sector which is one of the most dynamic industries today. Given the huge dependence on guest behavior, hoteliers need to know how to influence key decision makers and be visible at every key touch point. Here are some upcoming trends that we feel will have an impact on the industry and hoteliers should take notice and prepare well in advance.

  • Data explosion with 5G Network

The new 5G, with its superfast download speed and other benefits, is sure to have a massive impact on the expectations and behavior of mobile phone users. One can readily access virtual reality and videos and the 5G network is likely to bring a huge change in how guests research and book travel and hotel.  Users will have the opportunity to visualize themselves in their preferred room instead of only seeing the photos.

‘Mobile-first strategy’ will likely rule the trend. Google, being the early adopter like it is, may reward hotels that pro-actively focus on their mobile strategy and penalize the ones that are not at all mobile friendly. Thus, hotels need to make sure their brand website is mobile friendly and has a good page load speed. It’s important to develop mobile focused marketing strategy to capture this segment of guests that like to book things on mobile.

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  • Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will get a big boost with 5G network. However, AR proves to be more realistic than VR to hoteliers. Why? Real environment is replaced by a virtual one by VR. To visualize this, one needs wearable technology. On the contrary, AR introduces digital components into real environment that one can easily access with smartphones.

Some hotels have already started using this technology like AR-enabled maps and brochures. It is a great opportunity for hotel industry to enhance in-stay and pre-stay experience of their guests.

  • Dominance of Videos

Conveying information through videos is more effective than words because people today prefer watching than reading, especially in mobile phones. Do you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine globally? Facebook too generates huge traffic from its videos every day. With the emergence of 5G, videos will achieve greater importance.

To future-proof business, hoteliers have to invest in entertaining, informational and relevant video advertising. According to Google, videos are likely to capture 80% of online media in the coming years.

With so many innovative technologies coming up in the market, hotels have to optimize these opportunities to reap the maximum benefit for their business.

 

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Indonesian aparthotel improves online sales with eRevMax

The Malibu Suites – Balikpapan, an Indonesian aparthotel has improved its online sales with efficient rate and availability management through RateTiger. The property offering 35 serviced apartments in Borneo Balikpapan, has been using RateTiger Channel Manager since 2018 to manage all its online distribution channels in real-time.

Managed by Sissae Living, the Malibu Suites, has begun its operations in the business town of Borneo Balikpapan in February 2018. Primarily catering to business travellers, it is important for the property to connect with leading global and regional OTAs for maximum exposure. Prior to RateTiger, the Malibu Suites was managing the OTAs manually.

“It was difficult to distribute and manage rate and availability across channels. We also wanted to connect with more channels to improve our visibility,” said Frank Inakoe, Director, The Malibu Suites by Sissae Living.

Recommended by their Booking Engine provider, the Malibu Suites signed up for RateTiger Channel Manager in mid-2018. The cloud-based solution hosted on LiveOS, is helping the revenue management team to update rate and inventory (ARI) across all connected travel channels and receive reservations directly into their hotel management system. They are also monitoring their booking and production performance in real-time from the dashboard.

“With RateTiger, we found an easy way to manage our room availability and rates across all our channels from a single dashboard. The 24 hours support is always there for any assistance we need,” commented Frank.

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5 ways to attract millennials

It’s 2019, and it’s clear that millennials have a definite impact on travel and tourism than any other generational group. Around 20% of international travelers are young travelers of millennial generation, who value experiences over material possessions.

Boston Consulting Group, in its report, suggests millennials will account for almost 50% of travel spending by 2020. A high spending segment with very distinct travel preference is a reality that hospitality industry has been learning to accept and adjust.

Millennials, who were born between 80s and 90s, comprise almost half of the global workforce. Technologically sound with strong online presence, social and worldly, they have different set of values and expectations. They cherish individuality and prefer personalized travel experience. A cookie-cutter approach of traditional marketing does not work with them. Hotel needs to deliver customer journeys tailored to the changing travel habits of this segment.

To help you better connect with the millennials, we’ve got some quick tactics. You might be already be doing some of things we’re going suggest, which is great. However, you can always fine-tune and add more to your strategy while exploring our ideas.

  1. Online booking – give the channel for online booking a boost – Boost the online booking system so that it is fast and does not take much time for completion of the booking. The system should have the ability to push promotions across social media.

The millennials are tech savvy and they would do extensive research prior to booking.

i) Go for an in depth check of the website for your hotel and then get the site updated with all features and images that will help you attract millennials. They are the original smartphone generation with 43% checking their phones every five minutes. They use it to stay social, connect with people, take photos, do businesses and make purchases. If your hotel website is not mobile optimized and looks un-attractive to them, they will simply move to another site. Invest on a website which is fast, responsive and visually enriched.

ii) One reason OTAs are scoring high is their user-friendly interface. Most OTAs follow a simple booking process which is also highly secure. Invest in a booking system which is simple, stable and secure. Millennials know technology and are used to seamless buying experiences from applications like Amazon or Uber. Unless you live up to their expectation, they will look for another option.

2.   Millennials are price conscious and will not waste money

While millennials are the biggest spenders, however, unlike the earlier generations, they do not like to overspend. A generation that was most hit by global recession and education loan, millennials look for deals and often shop for last minute deals and alternative housing like camping or homestays. Given their busy work schedule, they prioritize shorter trips making memorable experiences out of lower budgets and tighter schedules.

This is one generation which have grown up with online travel agents and are familiar with their booking process. However, as they look for a more holistic experience, they are exploring new opportunities from a value and service perspective. To attract them to book direct, hotels need to ensure that their offers and rates are as good or even better than OTAs. Millennials are used to flexible terms and conditions, and expect no less from your direct booking engine. If your rates are just in parity with OTAs, they might go for the OTAs given their comfort factor with the travel websites. Provide additional value as Book Direct rewards like free parking, wifi or loyalty bonus.

3.      Millennial Family Travel is on Rise

Depending on time when they were born, millennials have very distinct preferences, with the travel journey of millennials varies based their life stages. Some of them, who are in the early stage of adulthood are still exploring their preference, while elders in the category have families. While the young ones often look for traveling solo in off-beaten adventures, those with family have more different sets of priorities. According to a survey by Resonance Consultancy, millennials with kids prioritize on safety, lower prices and convenience when considering their vacation plans. Digitally savvy, they take months to plan and visit multiple sites to compare prices before booking. Interestingly elder millennials with kids are almost as comfortable in experiencing urban life as their elder generations preference for beach resorts.

Major hotel chains are taking note of this change in travel habit. As more and more millennials see local experiences, out-of-the-way places and genuine connections with locals, hotels are increasingly collaborating with cooperating with local guides and teaming up with local restaurants to show off the region’s cuisine.

4.     Add visual pleasure to hotels

One thing that drives the millennials to travel is the social currency. According to a study by UK based Schofields, the millennial choice of holiday destination is being driven by how ‘Instagrammable’ it is. 40% of those surveyed with 18-33 put picture-worthiness of a particular place over other factors such as cost, local cuisine and availability of alcohol with sightseeing being the lowest priority.

In a similar way, over 42% Facebook posts by millennials are about travel. They connect with their families and friends over social networking platform and expect the same from hotels. For hotels this gives a unique opportunity to catch the attention of millennials and get their booking. However posting content on social media would not make millennials book property. Millennials expect personalization and customer engagement can make a lot of difference.

Compared to older generations, millennials have distinctly different travel expectations and behaviours compared to other generations. Travel companies need to align themselves with the changing mindset in order to make themselves relevant with this generation. When this tactic is executed well, travel companies are satisfied with the results.

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The Week, That Was – February 2019 Week 4

In five minutes or less, keep track of the most important news of the week, curated just for you. We present to you hand – picked news on latest industry perspectives and some general updates. Read on!!

HospitalityUnited.Club announces its signature Cocktails & Conversation event in Berlin

HospitalityUnited.Club, a consortium of travel technology companies, brings back its classic Cocktails & Conversation event to Berlin in March. The Club will be hosting an exclusive evening for hoteliers on 7th March 2019, in partnership with Cendyn, Fornova, Hotelbeds, LiveOS, RateTiger, Roiback and Sojern.

https://bit.ly/2XdYEEG

Expedia announces Certified Technology Partner Program

Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS) has launched its Certified Technology Partner Program, an elite program for EPS’ top technology partners from around the world.

https://bit.ly/2GVY09e

Experimenting with the future of business travel: three hypotheses

There are three clear hypotheses that the business travel industry should be experimenting with to be truly customer-centric in the future.

https://www.egencia.com/public/us/experimenting-with-the-future-of-business-travel-three-hypotheses

Growing travelling population shaping the future of the hospitality world

Demographics and growing economies are changing the shape of future travelers in the world. What factors is the future of hospitality looking to deal with? Within the next decade, the number of households making at least US$ 100,000 annually will increase by 30 million, with one out of three of these households located in emerging markets.

https://www.hotelmarketing.com/articles/growing-travelling-population-shaping-the-future-of-the-hospitality-world

Distributed ledger technology can bring rate parity to hotel distribution

The last few years have seen a steady rise in the impact of rate parity and onward distribution issues on hotelier’s bottom line.

 https://www.phocuswire.com/Distributed-ledgers-rate-parity-hotel-distribution

Connect with us for your connectivity needs to make the most of online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

Thanks and have a good day!

 

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Luxury hotel in Ghana recommends RateTiger for online distribution

The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, a luxury property in Ghana has recommended RateTiger for streamlining online distribution. The hotel has experienced significant improvement in their operational efficiency leveraging RateTiger’s cloud based channel manager and on-demand shopping tool.

Located in Akosombo, a resort town near Ghanaian capital Accra, the The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, with its 84 rooms, caters to primarily leisure tourists. eRevMax’s XML connectivity with global and regional OTAs, GDSs and Metas have made it possible for the revenue management team to manage their OTAs, GDS and booking engine from LiveOS dashboard.

 “It was easy when we’re handling just the booking engine. The real challenge came when we signed up with several OTAs – updating multiple extranets and consolidating reports from these channels manually was time-taking and taking a toll on our efficiency.  RateTiger by eRevMax has solved it all. With just one entry I can update all OTAs simultaneously from the dashboard. It also gives me the data I want at one go with a simple click,” said Bennett Attakorah, Rooms Division Manager, The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort.

 “Providing hotels with stable connectivity remained our priority for the last 17 years. RateTiger and LiveOS have been built with a vision to make online sales simpler for hotels, and this recommendation is a testimony to that,” said Ram Mohan Dubey, Regional Sales Director, eRevMax.

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Abasto Hotel experiences 65% revenue growth with RateTiger Channel Manager

Abasto Hotel Buenos Aires,  a  property in Argentinian capital, has improved its online sales by over 80% leveraging eRevMax‘s gold standard of connectivity with leading OTAs. The Buenos Aires based property has been using RateTiger  Channel Manager  for online distribution and managing rates and inventory across its connected OTAs since 2012.

A family-friendly property with 126 rooms, Abasto Hotel is located in the historical district, just steps from Museo de los Ninos and Abasto Shopping Center and caters to upmarket business and leisure travellers. RateTiger’s seamless connectivity with global and regional OTAs as well as metasearch sites allows Abasto Hotel to be visible in all relevant sales channels for maximum exposure.

“In the past 4-5 years, we have seen our online revenue grow 65% with an 80% increase in OTA sales. We have experienced an overall growth in business and our occupancy have gone up despite the macro-economic factors,” said Silvina Donvito, Revenue Manager at Abasto Hotel Buenos Aires.

“RateTiger is more than just a hotel channel manager. It’s a powerful tool that makes connectivity simple and hassle free. The stable and secure connections help in making immediate rate and inventory updates across all channels while also delivering bookings back into the system. Further, the 24×7 support makes it very convenient as we can go to them whenever with the smallest of query and they are always happy to help,” concluded Silvina.

The Argentinian hotel market is characterized by regional operators that have a strong position. With supply of rooms outpacing demand, online channels have emerged as an important revenue source for hoteliers. Abasto Hotel, with 15 OTAs in its distribution mix, has been able to improve its occupancy to 85%, about 20 points more than the industry average in Buenos Aires. This has resulted in an increase in RevPAR and profitability, with the help of RateTiger Channel Manager.

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eRevMax announces 2-way integration with Nitesoft

Award-winning hotel connectivity expert eRevMax has completed 2-way integration with Swedish cloud-based PMS Nitesoft. The strategic partnership between the two companies will automate the distribution of availability, rates and reservations for hotel clients.


Nitesoft is a leading cloud-based hotel management platform in Scandinavia that incorporates a wide range of features for hotels, chains and serviced apartments, independent of size or operation type.  Following the integration, hotels using RateTiger channel manager and connectivity solutions can now receive all OTA generated reservations directly into their PMS, thereby eliminating manual handling of reservation notifications.

“The connectivity between RateTiger and Nitesoft PMS has proven to be highly reliable and easy-to-use. It means more sales and higher margins for our hotel customers. They can now exploit the full potential of a vast selection of OTAs, GDSs, Metasearch and Wholesalers available via the eRevMax Channel Ecosystem to expand visibility and revenue potential,” said Jan Linders, CEO, Nitesoft.

“Scandinavia is one of our key growth regions, and this interface with Nitesoft PMS will be beneficial for our mutual hotel customers. The secure XML connection ensures live rate and inventory as well as booking data flow, thereby keeping their Nitesoft PMS updated automatically, allowing the hotel manager to focus on other key aspects like guest engagement,” said Ashis Saha, SVP – Project Management, eRevMax. 

 

 

 

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Hotel Okura recommends RateTiger as the best Channel Manager

One of the most luxurious 5-star properties in Macau, Hotel Okura has endorsed RateTiger Channel Manager as the best-in-class online distribution solution. The hotel has been using the award-winning solution from eRevMax since 2011, for management of rates and availability across all connected online sales channels with great results.

Located next to Galaxy Macau, Okura Macau is a top-rated five-star accommodation with 488 rooms spreading over 25 floors.  A popular choice for luxury travellers from China and South Asia, the hotel has been leveraging RateTiger’s two-way XML connectivity with all leading regional and global channels thereby helping them expand their online reach – in sync with the hotel’s motto of “World Class, Asian Heart”.

“RateTiger provides us with all the major channels including regional channels and wholesalers to efficiently distribute rates and inventory, which has resulted in improved occupancy and revenue.  The ‘real-time update’ of rates and availability happens in the true sense helping us stay ahead in an extremely competitive market like Macau,” said Phillip Lou, E Business Manager, Hotel Okura Macau.

“It’s a powerful tool for the ease of connectivity and making quick updates across all channels seamlessly. The detailed demand information ensures our selling strategies work more effectively. On top of that, the excellent support and training gives us the opportunity to comfortably use new product features and make the most of their innovative offerings. We consider RateTiger a reliable partner for all our connectivity needs,” concluded Phillip.

Since partnering with eRevMax, the property has improved their online exposure considerably by expanding their distribution mix.